


Peripheral

by hollo



Series: Pavor Nocturnus: A Voltron Horror Anthology [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood, Blood Loss, Escape, Gen, Grave Injury, Horror, Injury, Lovecraftian, Lovecraftian Horror, Major Injury, Monster - Freeform, Panic, Rescue, Survival, Transdimensional Beings, adrenaline rush, base escape, eldritch horror, kaleidoscopic monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2019-02-01 16:39:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12708840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollo/pseuds/hollo
Summary: It was supposed to be a simple mission for Keith and Lance - get in, scout weird underground base, and get out. With the lack of any biological signatures, they’d assumed the base was abandoned and empty.It wasn’t.Now Keith was badly injured and could not move on his own, and Lance needed to get him and get out before anything worse can happen - all while avoiding the strange and luminescent creatures that seemed to only exist in the corners of their eyes. Their soft, surreal beauty belied a dangerous nature - as Keith had discovered - and the only way they could survive was to get out without waking them from their drifting lethargy.(Part of the Klance Big Bang 2017)





	Peripheral

**Author's Note:**

> Huge shout out to the mods for running the Klance Big Bang 2017! It was a blast to write for, at some points I thought I was going to miss my wordcount but in the end it all pulled together.
> 
> I want to give the biggest hugest thanks to the artists that created the dead-ass AWESOME artwork you'll find in this fic! Boomer and Marz are absolutely amazing at what they do and their work has added so much to this fic. I'm honored to have been able to have them work on pieces for this fic. Please be sure to visit them and give their artwork a reblog/like and let them know how awesome they are!
> 
> Boomer: https://spaceboomerang.tumblr.com/  
> Marz: https://marzdraws.tumblr.com/
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Like horror in your Voltron? Want more of it? Keep an eye out on my [writing tumblr](https://hollowrites.tumblr.com) for updates on my pet project, the Voltron Horror Collection!

 

A horrible thudding pounded through his brain, a slow and steady drumbeat tempo that resounded within his skull so loudly he couldn’t tell if he was still breathing or not.

The fall had taken his breath away, the hard metal floor forcing it out his mouth as his back connected with surprising force. He was still gasping to try and catch it, he realized in the space between thuds, but the realization was dim and distant, his focus was gone.

Far, far up above him, on a dark metal walkway, he could just barely glimpse the gleam of white between the holes of the grated flooring.

Far, far below it, he was just beginning to feel the first glimmers of pain just below his left knee.

His suit was reacting already, even as his mind faltered in its attempt to catch up with the situation. Everything had gone so fast - there was a tightening across his body as the black undersuit reacted to the signals sent by sensors - one moment he was crossing the walkway, bayard in hand but undeployed, nothing but dimly lit openness surrounding him - the suit tightened in succession, traveling down across his body until it reached his legs - and then there was a shimmer, something flickering at the edges of his vision - the suit tightened, suddenly and sharply, directly below his left knee and pain burst deep, spasming his body and shocking a wheezing curse out of his mouth.

There had been a flicker, he remembered, a translucent glimmer of luminescent blue hovering tantalizingly on the periphery of his vision. When he’d turned to look at it it disappeared, ghost like, into the void, and though his senses had prickled he’d found himself intrigued. Again, he’d turned to continue down the walkway and towards his objective, and again the glimmer returned, hovering at the edge of his vision, luminescent in the darkness like a jellyfish in the depths of the ocean. He struggled to catch more than that sideways glance, struggled to keep from blinking lest it disappear, straining his eyes to try and pick out any detail he could, but all he could see were fragments - a bell shaped structure at top, nearly invisible outside of the edges that gleamed bright blue, and below that a multitude of… something, something that shimmered in and out of sight in streaks of light as it writhed in odd tempo.

He knew he should continue down the walkway, maybe just radio in the strange sight at most as he continued on; he knew that there was a good reason for him to be moving along quickly through the abandoned base, but the why of it eluded him at the moment. The shimmer, the rise and fall of the blue shine, had caught his attention, had captured it in a grasp both soft yet surprisingly strong, and he found himself unable to look away from the strangely alluring sight.

The apparition hovered, there at the edges of his watering vision, and suddenly, inexplicably, he had found himself reaching out to it -

His left thigh throbbed, the pain stabbing through the joint of his knee. Overhead, the white of his armored, severed leg gleamed almost mockingly bright in the darkness.

= _...eith… Keith! Can you hear me?_ =

The thudding in his head receded at the sound of the voice over the comms, turning less thunderous as he focused on words he knew were being spoken to him. He opened his mouth to respond but all that came out was a wheezing gasp, an exhale that had attempted at words and failed horribly.

= _Keith? What’s going on?_ =

“Lance…” His rasped, voice gritting through his suddenly-dry throat. He coughed, his heart still thudding rapidly in his chest.

_=What’s going on? What happened?=_

Lance’s voice had pitched high in concern, repeating his worried question as Keith struggled for the breath he needed to respond.

_=Keith!=_

“Lance - ‘m hurt,” Keith managed, his suit slowly releasing its grip across his upper body, slackening around his arms and chest. He pulled in a desperate breath, shifting his arms in a sorry attempt to try to pick himself up off the ground. His legs remained caught in the suit’s hold, however, even his whole and uninjured one painful in the fabric’s tight grasp. His fingers scrabbled for purchase, slipping across metal, but though it felt like he’d expended all his energy he’d barely managed to stir. He needed to get up, he thought desperately, struggling, he couldn’t defend himself like this.

 _=What?!=_ Lance’s voice was loud in his ears, too high pitched for comfort but Keith welcomed it all the same, clung to it desperately as the pain in his leg continued its dull throbbing. Above him, if he only glanced quickly, if he only brushed his gaze across the length of the metal walkway without focusing on any one thing, he could catch the lightest of blue shimmers, right above his leg. If he squinted and let his focus go, let his eyes wander by themselves, the creature above him came into being, as ghostly as before.

“My leg…” Keith wheezed, shifting his arms again to try and push himself up. He couldn’t just lay there, he had no idea where he’d fallen or what was around him. There were safety lights along the walkway, but down where he was it was dark. Anything could hide in that darkness.

 _=Your leg, what happened to your leg?=_ Lance asked, words rushing in time with Keith’s pulse. _=No don’t tell me what happened just stay there - if you’re safe are you safe?=_

Was he safe? Keith gritted his teeth, planted his palms against the ground and shoved as hard as he could. His arms wobbled, his head spun, but he managed to push himself up off the ground enough that he was no longer laying on it. His breath came fast, harsh in his own ears, as dark spots swarmed his vision. Whatever energy he’d mustered to raise himself seemed to dissipate almost immediately, every sensation he was feeling suddenly becoming sharp and profound. The pain in his leg throbbed as if he were being stabbed with daggers, his chest tightened, his arms threatened to give out. It felt like ages until a haze filtered in through his mind and the pain faded, until he could focus his eyes again around him.

The first thing he saw was darkness.

The lighting in his suit lit his immediate surroundings, aquamarine glinting off the edges of the metal plates making up the floor, but beyond its frail reaches the shadows were immense, and deep. Some primal fear, something akin to the instincts that ruled him, stirred deep inside his brain, and in his weakened state, fully aware of the disadvantages of his position, he found himself trembling in the face of the unknown.

His comms were silent. His nerves splintered, between the darkness and the silence and the throbbing of his injury and the constant hum of his brain overworking itself to keep it together, he faltered near the point of falling apart.

_=Keith…=_

Lance’s voice trembled through his ears, soft yet worried, taut with apprehension, and Keith let out a shaky breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“I… I fell off a walkway. I’m on a lower level,” It was an effort to speak, to force the words out of his mouth. His mind was still reeling as he forced himself up even more, a whimper escaping his lips when his injured leg shifted. The dark spots returned, accompanying the pain that he desperately fought against. He struggled to see past them, struggled to keep his breath from coming too fast and too hard for his aching chest to keep up with. Even if the darkness stretched around him, even if the only thing he could see was that he had no idea where he was or if anything was coming for him, he still felt massively better to be sitting up instead of laying prone on the ground.

“I think I’m safe,” He forced out between breaths. “It’s dark. I...I can’t see far….”

 _=It’s okay, that’s okay=_ Lance said soothingly, _=Did you try putting your headlamps on?=_

“I’ll try that,” Keith answered, wondering who Lance was trying to soothe. He didn’t need soothing. His heart was pounding and his body was shaking but he was fine, if he could only see around himself he’d be fine. Gritting his teeth, forcing himself to focus, he flexed his fingers against the controls in his gloves. Diagrams and notations flashed across the screen of his helmet, most he couldn’t understand. The big, flashing red triangle, however, he recognized all too well.

“It’s not working.” Was it his voice that cracked now? Keith couldn’t tell. The darkness pressed around him and one of his hands slipped a little, setting him shifting backwards. He overcorrected too ambitiously, almost folding himself in half, and set the pain soaring through his body again.

 _=Keith!=_ Lance’s voice tore into his awareness, distraught and panicked, _=Keith - Keith! I’m coming, you just stay put okay, you just stay right there I’m coming to get you out of there, I’m gonna get you out of there buddy-=_

He must’ve cried out, Keith realized, as Lance’s panicked monologue continued in his ears. He was hunched over, legs splayed before him and hands propped on either side to hold himself up. His head hung low, and as his eyes focused he came face to face with the full extent of his injury.

The first thing he noticed was the blood. A pool of it gathered just beneath the stump of his leg, thick and colored an odd brown in his suit’s light. The stench of it was heavy in the air, the metallic taste coating his tongue on each breath. His suit had clenched tight just under his knee like a tourniquet, but it was obvious from the size of the pool that he’d lost a lot of blood before it could do so.

“It isn’t that bad…” Keith whispered to himself, head spinning from the stench and the sight. “Isn’t that bad…”

_=Keith, I’m heading in your position, I'll be there in a dobosh, maybe two=_

Lance was making an obvious effort to sound calm, Keith could tell, and a surge of appreciation warmed his chest. Lance was a good guy, Keith thought. He really was. He hadn’t thought that way in the beginning but he’d grown to appreciate him along the way, through the battles and the downtime.

“Fuck,” Keith breathed, wondering when he’d become a sap. He didn’t have time for sappiness - his leg ached, and above head somewhere hovered the glowing near-invisible alien being that had just torn his leg off. He didn’t have time for emotion.

 _=Keith! What happened?!=_ Lance’s composure broke, his voice cracking. Oh, he’d heard him, Keith realized vaguely.

“Nothing happened,” Keith said softly, tilted his head back, eyes trying and failing to find that glimmer of blue. Was it still there? Had it moved? Dammit, he needed to keep track of it. Lance was coming, and he’d probably be coming from the same direction he had, through the doorway and down the walkway - he couldn’t have Lance stumbling upon the thing like he had, he couldn’t have Lance getting hurt too. He couldn’t…

He swallowed, thickly, his throat suddenly tight, “Lance, I’m… I’m fine. I’m waiting for you just… just be careful.”

 _=Keith, buddy, it's like you don't even know me, when am I not the epitome of carefulness?=_ Keith could think of several moments, a grin coming to his face as Lance continued, _=I'll be there super quick, you just stay put=_

A pained chuckle broke past Keith’s lips at that; _stay put_ , as if he could move. He should move, he knew, he should pick up his head, he should be on alert - trapped in an unknown area of the base, surrounded by darkness, an absolutely unreal and nearly invisible dangerous monster hovering overhead - he should be on alert, but… his head hung loosely, the energy somehow draining from him. The red still stained the floor below him, and as he stared at it it seemed… it seemed deep, bottomless, a pool of dark-edged crimson that he could just drop into, fall into and keep falling and falling and-

A shudder ran up his spine. Keith breathed, deep though shaky, and forced his upper body upright again. He should be on alert, he reminded himself, struggling to get his head to stop swaying. His surroundings moved around him, pulsing in and out of focus with each beat of his heart. His lips were dry as he ran his tongue across them. Everything was very quiet again, Lance’s voice had disappeared, and only the rasping of his own breath filled his ears.

He was suddenly and shockingly very, very calm. There was some sort of white-noise in his head, some heavy pressure around his ears, that grounded him somewhat. He could feel the cool metal beneath his gloved fingers. He could feel the hard surface under his one leg, under the half of his other leg. He swore he could feel what felt like a light breeze waft gently around him, cooling his sweat-dampened and blood-soaked underarmor. It was almost pleasant, and for a moment his eyelids slid to half-mast, his breathing steadied all the more, despite the throb in his leg and the weakness in his body. He felt very calm.

The breeze came again, a soft caress at the back of his neck, and Keith’s head rolled forward slightly. It cooled his skin through the underarmor, sent a numbing chill down his back and up the back of his head, and he sighed. Everything seemed to be receding, the surroundings, the smell of blood, his own thoughts - everything seemed so far away, so distant. The cool touch on his neck was weighing down on him, thickening, congealing, but he noticed this with detachment. He was supposed to be focused on something, he thought, mind moving sluggishly. He was here on… on a mission… he was here with… His head seemed to shudder, the thoughts breaking apart almost as soon as they appeared. Frowning, Keith struggled to get his mind back into action, struggled to… remember… to remember he was here with…

The chill on his neck spasmed suddenly, tightened in a half-circle around the back of his neck - the thoughts broke apart again, the pieces pinballing inside his skull but there was something, something deep inside him that was ringing in warning. His senses prickled, his awareness fighting past the cloud of white noise and numbness that had invaded him so suddenly and fully, and though Keith didn’t know - he couldn’t see what - couldn’t grasp _what_ was happening - his body moved on instinct, reacted to a danger he didn’t even know existed until _that moment_ -

Pain exploded from his injured leg as he threw himself to the side. The chill that had been at the back of his neck, moving slowly yet determinedly so shortly before, ripped away as if it had been connected to him, a burning sensation waking at the back of his neck as he toppled over. He was screaming - he couldn’t hear himself but he could feel the reverberations in his chest, his throat, feel the hoarseness of his cry in his mouth. The pain was overwhelming, his entire body twitched almost uncontrollably, but he had to _move_.

Fingers scrabbling against the smooth metal floor, he struggled away from where he’d sat. The darkness around him flickered - or was it his eyes? His vision? His heart was pounding in his head again, staccato fast and deep like a bass drum, every part of him to his very fingertips pulsing in response. The chill breeze came again, glancing down the length of his back but he was moving now, his fingers and palms finding purchase on the floor to shove him over, over, over, inch after painful inch. He forced his one, whole leg to move with him, to push him forward as his arms pulled, the injured leg dragging painfully on the ground.

Even the pain couldn’t get through the burst of adrenaline that filled him right then. His instincts, his senses, were blaring airhorns through his bloodstream, he could think of nothing but getting away, getting somewhere to safety, he didn’t know what he was running from - crawling from - but he knew he had to get away. He had to find a way to get away. His own hoarse gasps filled his ears, his head practically throbbed with the beating of his heart. The pain of his injury was digging daggers into his leg, sending lightning strikes of pain up his body, the muscles of abdomen and torso almost spasming in response, but he couldn’t stop - he _couldn’t stop_ \- he had to -

His helmet collided with a wall, jarring him off balance. He swayed slightly, barely catching himself from falling over. Bracing one hand against the wall before him he hurriedly turned around, his injured leg screaming in protest as he forced it to move. Digging the heel of his boot against the floor he shoved himself back until he was sitting with the wall pressed tight against him, hands splayed to the sides to keep him upright. The solid metal at his back was reassuring, but only slightly, and a tremor shook him as he looked back from where he'd come.

Darkness. The pool of blood he'd left behind glinted in the glow of his suits light, just barely - he'd covered a surprising several long yards in his mad crawl - but beyond that there was nothing.

That was almost worse. How could he prepare to defend himself against something he couldn’t see? The tremor in his body grew, his arms spasming, his gut clenching. He was still breathing fast - too fast - he couldn’t control his breathing, he couldn’t control the way his body shook like a leaf, all he could do was glance wide eyed in every direction he could, straining to catch a glimpse of something, anything, _anything at all._

Above head, as his eyes slid higher into the air, the faint glimmer of blue still hung where it had been, and Keith couldn’t fight the draw. His gaze focused up on the walkway again, on the stark white that he could only just barely see now that he had moved even further away. As far as he could tell, the creature was still up there, a faint presence at the edge of his sight.

What was it, then, that had touched him? That had laid its cold touch on his neck? His gaze shot down again, back to the pool of blood and the area surrounding it. Darkness - and more darkness - shadows that bordered on inky black. He couldn’t see anything and the tremors grew throughout his body. He had always been so good at keeping his fear under control, or turning it into something productive - _offense being the best defense_ \- but between the pain and the tremors and the way his brain was dancing from white noise buzzing to sudden and surreal clarity and back again within each beat of his heart was throwing all his control off kilter. How was he supposed to defend against something he couldn’t see? How was he supposed to-

A prickle ran up his spine, almost electric. The skin of his scalp tingled, he could _feel_ his hair standing in the response to the goosebumps that had erupted across his body. His breaths faltered, his eyes widening, as there, as his eyes passed the pool of blood again, a ghostly shape flickered into view. He froze, his eyes desperate to look back, to focus on it, but he knew if he did he would lose sight of it. If he did, if it moved when he couldn’t see it, he wouldn’t find it again, not without another desperate search.

His hand shook, but he picked it up from the ground anyway, struggling to control his breathing as he willed his bayard to form in his grasp. Light flashed for a moment as it materialized, the grip a comforting weight in his hand.

Above the blood, the creature shifted. Keith almost missed it, his body shaking so much now that his eyes couldn’t stay still, but he caught it. A flicker as the slightly swaying mass below the bell-shaped top expanded, separated into strands of various thicknesses and lengths. Keith’s breath caught in his throat, the bayard flashing into a sword in response to his emotions. Had the creature moved in response to the light from the bayard? Had it _seen_ it? Had-

Another soft sway, almost slow motion, the strands under the creature’s body spreading out in a circular pattern almost in slow motion, widely enough that a good part of them disappeared outside of Keith’s sight.

“L...Lance?” He whispered in a voice hoarse from the screaming, the silence overbearing. He didn’t want to be alone, right then, he needed to know he wasn’t alone. The creature still moved, excruciatingly slowly, but his eyes were having a hard time following it, and the coms remained oppressively silent. Nothing reached him but the buzz of empty air and a dark feeling gripped somewhere in his gut, ice and trepidation mixing into a heavy weight within it. Fear bubbled up from the concoction in his gut, forcing its way up his throat and out his mouth in another desperate cry,

“Lance!”

Static came in response, the coms buzzing in his ears, and something garbled and unrecognizable as a voice broke through for a second. Keith bit his lip to keep from whimpering, triggering the sensors in his gloves in an attempt to pull up the locator map to try and find out where Lance was. He’d been moving towards him, he had to be somewhere nearby. He _had_ to be somewhere nearby.... Keith’s lip was painful under his teeth, he couldn’t remember what sensor triggered it - he couldn’t remember the order - he couldn’t - errors popped up across the screen, bathing his face in a red glow, and the whimper came then, he reached up and smacked the side of the helmet then, because nothing was working _nothing was working_. The smack did nothing to help; he’d hit too hard and nearly knocked himself over in his desperation, sending his head reeling and his leg screaming as he scrambled to keep upright.

The pain, the blood loss, was catching up to him, dancing dark spots across his vision, and this time when he looked up he couldn’t find the creature, couldn’t find even a hint of a glow anywhere before him.

“Lance,” he called again, unable to keep his voice from shaking, unable to keep the desperation from staining his tone heavily. He raised his sword defensively, the tip shaking wildly before him. Static responded again, garbled and broken until finally words broke through-

 _= -lmost at your lo-=_ Lance’s voice cut out again _=just a l------urther open---ng the door=_

Opening…? Keith’s eyes shot upwards, too fast, even if he hadn’t moved the mere shift of view dizzied him. He fought past the sudden strange vertigo, searching for the walkway, for the doorway at the end where he’d entered. Was Lance that close? Was he really at the door already? Hope flared briefly within his breast as the shifting darkness at the end of the walkway was lit suddenly by an aquamarine glow.

_=Keith? Keith, buddy, can you hear me? Something was messing with the coms-=_

“I can hear you,” Keith gasped in relief, eyes tracking the glow as it moved slowly but steadily. “I… I can see you.”

Lance’s figure came into view, the glow of his armor’s lights and the headlamp illuminating the walkway around him. The beam from his headlamp swung from side to side as he came, no doubt taking stock of his surroundings.

_=You fell off of here somewhere? What happened, wh-=_

Lance’s words cut off with a curse - his headlamp had swung to illuminate the last part of the walkway Keith had been on, and the grisly remains of his encounter with the glowing creature. Keith’s relief, so deeply reassuring a moment earlier, shifted abruptly to terror when Lance’s pace picked up suddenly, hurrying across the walkway.

 _=Keith! What the fuck happened, where are you?=_ Lance’s voice was choked with emotion, he sounded horrified.

“No-” Keith’s voice caught in his throat like a cough, he struggled again, eyes widening when he realized that awful glow still lingered above his leg, “Lance s-stop! Stop, you have to stop! Don’t go to it- it’s still there!”

 _=What do you mean?=_ Lance’s steps slowed, but he still moved, his rifle held at ready. _=What’s still there?=_

“You have to stop…” Keith’s voice puttered out weakly, his breath coming fast. He felt weaker suddenly, far weaker than he had before. “It’s still there…”

 _=Buddy, where are you?=_ Lance asked, voice wavering and the emotion of it hit Keith somewhere inside him, painful, Lance shouldn’t have to worry. He shouldn't have to worry about _him_ , Keith should be able to get through this, to do more than just sit around and wait for rescue, useless and helpless.

“It’s still...It’s right above…” Keith struggled to respond, his words running from him. HIs arm was shaking too badly to hold his sword up any longer, the tip sagging towards the ground as the remnants of his strength finally disappeared. Licking dry lips, tasting copper in the air again, he struggled to speak, “It’s still... “

_=I...I think I see your lights. I’m coming down.=_

That waver hadn’t left Lance’s voice, though he spoke firmly, all business. The lights shifted, a flash brightening the walkway as he put his Bayard away, and Keith could just barely make out how Lance approached the guardrail - a good distance away from his leg.

Small miracles, Keith thought, his eyes falling from the walkway to the darkness before him. Small miracles…

The darkness still surrounded him, but as the sound of Lance’s jets echoed from above a glimmer of blue caught Keith’s eyes.

The creature on the lower floor still hovered near the pool of blood, and though it vanished as Keith’s eyes fell on it again, it came back to view as he forced his gaze away. Breath coming harsh and fast, he struggled to gauge just where it was in relation to where Lance was coming from - but each time he spared a mind-whirling glance up at the descending lights and back down again the creature seemed to have moved, the extended filaments shifting through the air at a pace far faster than Keith had seen them moving before. They writhed, the ends disappearing from his view as they spread and twisted throughout the air, the large bell-shaped structure seeming to grow and shrink in an odd tempo. Fear, already coursing through his veins, spiked suddenly as he realized just how close Lance could come to it, just how close his landing would bring him to the creature’s outspread tendrils.

“No!” Keith cried out, shifting on the ground and struggling to lift his sword.

= _What’s wrong? Keith are you okay?=_

Lance’s descent wasn’t slowing - if anything he was coming down faster and Keith couldn’t let him - he couldn’t let him land anywhere near that _thing_ -

“You’re too close to it!” Keith called, stretching out an arm as if he’d be able to pluck Lance from the air and pull him close. Restless energy was racing through him, he wanted to get up, to race over and grab him, to push the creature away, to do anything to keep Lance from suffering the same fate as him. He had to do something - but his body screamed at his attempts to rise - he had to do more than just wave his arm around, more than just scream out at him to _watch out._

Keith didn’t know when his vision had gone spotty, didn’t know where his awareness was gone but he could barely register Lance landing, perilously close to the pool of blood and the creature, barely noticed when he ran across the floor to him, boots tapping a dull tempo against the metal floor.

Lance was down there with him, finally, crouching to look at him with his blue eyes wide, his face taut with worry, but Keith was still panicking, one arm flailing as he held himself up with the other, “Y-you have to it’s right -”

“Keith- _Keith_ \- buddy calm down,” Lance hurried over to grab Keith’s arm. His eyes traveled across his body, trailed down to the stump of his leg and stuck there a second, the hand on Keith’s arm tightening slightly at the sight.

“They’re… Lance they’re right around there,” Keith gasped, trying to wave the hand that Lance was holding since the other one was still propping him up. Lance’s gaze met his again, fraught with worry and looking the slightest bit nauseated.

“It’s all right,” Lance said softly, soothingly, though he didn’t look back behind him. He was focused on Keith, the hand holding his wrist firm but gentled, his other hand reaching up to rest on the side of Keith’s helmet. Keith blinked, vision blurring a bit, as Lance’s eyes bored into his own. Somehow, for a single moment, everything stilled. For a moment, the pain receded the tiniest bit, his breathing came a little bit easier, the pounding in his head faded, and all he could really understand was that Lance was there, right there with him.

“Listen, I need to take a look at your leg, that means I’m going to have to move it a little, okay?” Lance said slowly and clearly. Keith didn’t understand why he was talking so slowly, but he didn’t have the energy to do more than furrow his brows in response. The moment was passing, the pain was returning and he was starting to feel a horrid sense of weariness flooding him. Lance continued in that same, even and almost soothing tone, “It might hurt for a little bit but I need to make sure the bleeding’s stopped, okay?”

Keith nodded, feeling all abuzz, all fuzzed out, as Lance turned his attention to his leg. His body felt like it was jumping between sensation and dull inexistence, the pain growing and fading in odd intervals, a shudder racing across his skin at each shift. Lance’s hands dropped from his helmet, from his wrist, dropped to touch his leg as gently as they could. Keith thought that he should be looking out for the creatures instead of watching Lance touch his leg, forced his eyes to lift and look over Lance’s shoulder instead.

“Keith,” It was more of an exhale than actual speech, and when Keith managed to meet Lance’s eyes he found them wide and slightly panicked. “It’s still bleeding, I… I think the suit didn’t tighten enough.”

Keith blinked at him, the words tumbling through his head, the meaning lost somewhere within the jumble. He hadn’t found the creature yet again, it could be anywhere, he couldn’t understand what Lance was implying with the worried gaze, “So?”

“So we need to stop that,” Lance said, closing his eyes for a moment and biting his lip. He nodded after a second, this time avoiding Keith’s eyes when he opened his own again. “I’m going to have to use some of the safety line from our suits and… and tie a tourniquet.”

“Oh” Keith responded, though he felt like he was a few steps behind. He understood what was meant now, but it didn’t hit him. It wasn’t until Lance had opened a panel on his arm brace, until he’d pulled out a length of cord that the full meaning blossomed in his understanding.

“Oh,” he said again, with slightly more energy than before. Lance looked at him uncertainly, the length of cord held ready in his hands. “You have t… to tie. Tie it.”

“Yeah,” The response came out choked, and despite the brave face Lance looked a little grin at the edges, his hands shaking. “I’m gonna have to tie it. Should have a stick or something but I don’t so I’m just going to have to.. just... It’s… it’s gonna hurt, Keith.”

“Okay,” Keith said. There wasn’t anything else he could say.

“It’s really not....” Lance muttered, already looping the cord around Keith’s leg, positioning it above his knee. Keith watched in a detached sort of way, things feeling very distant and a bit surreal. It almost felt like training, like they were back at the castle going through a survival scenario in the training room and learning how to make do with what they had on hand, first aid in uncertain situations. It all felt a bit unreal.

At least, it did until Lance tightened the cord with a sure and strong pull, and the pain that had receded to a dull throb suddenly burst fresh and volatile up through Keith’s body and straight into his brain.

He _writhed_ \- he could feel his body twisting, his head rolling back as muscles convulsed across his core. Maybe, if he hadn’t been so injured, if he hadn’t lost so much blood his consciousness was wavering, he would’ve handled it better but his body was wrecked and it reacted outside his will. The pounding in his ears gave way to a horrid screeching and ringing, blocking out any and all sounds, even the ones the was making himself. Black spots were dancing across his vision, growing and waning and he couldn’t tell what direction he was looking in. He couldn’t tell how much time had passed.

Lance was talking to him. The ringing was finally receding, he could feel his body again under the pain and the tension, and Lance was talking to him. Keith could barely focus, between the pounding in his ears and the way his vision kept pulsing in and out. Lance’s hands were on his shoulders, and once Keith’s eyes settled a bit more he realize Lance’s face was close to his, their helmets almost touching.

“Keith, Keith! Look at me, stay with me buddy, please, come on,” Lance was saying, over and over, his hands almost painfully tight on Keith’s shoulders. Keith wanted to tell him to loosen his hold but all he could do was gasp, was wheeze, pulling the air into his lungs through a throat that burned on each swallow. The pain was still there, throbbing and hot in his leg, and the tightness of the makeshift tourniquet was almost too much to bear.

“Keith,” Lance said again, one hand lifting to lay against the side of Keith’s helmet again, a gesture so soft and bordering on fond that it stabbed a pain of a different kind within Keith’s breast. “I”m so sorry b...but I had to do it-”

“I…” Keith wheezed, wearily forcing his own hand up, placing it over Lance’s. “I know, ‘s okay…”

“It’s gonna be okay,” Lance told him, firmly and resolutely, and though the look on his face was still pained, still shellshocked, he managed a grin that brought some of the color back to his eyes. “We’re getting out of here, okay buddy? I’m gonna get you outta here. You trust me?”

Keith met his eyes, forced a grin onto his face, and breathed out,

“Of course.”

 

\--

 

Lance could feel his entire body vibrating. A low, level thrum resonated from the tips of his fingers to his toes, his scalp prickling with the feeling that something was very much not right. Maybe it was the fact that Keith - seemingly unstoppable, resilient, talented Keith - was sitting in front of him, missing a leg and looking liable to pass out at any moment. Maybe it was because despite all the signs that something had viciously attacked him, Lance couldn’t see what had done it.

It was obvious something was lurking in the darkness around them - Lance didn’t doubt that. Keith couldn’t have accidentally just ripped his own leg off, and the way he’d freaked out not long before when Lance entered the area, about _it_ still being there… Something was there. Lance was certain of it, and he’d need to figure out a way to find it so they could avoid it or get rid of it before it attacked them again. First, however, he needed to figure out a way to get Keith up and moving.

“I think I remember the blueprints of this place showing a cargo bay on the lower level,” He said, trying to meet Keith’s eyes, to hold his attention. It worked for a second, maybe two, Keith’s dark eyes clearing as his forehead wrinkled, brows drawn in, obviously trying to follow along with what Lance was saying. It didn’t last long, that focus in his gaze shifting as his eyes wandered to the side, and Lance reached out a hand to touch his shoulder. “Keith, we’re going to need to walk to get there. You think you can help me with that?”

“Walk?” Keith repeated, slowly, as if trying to figure the word out, then shook his head. “Y-yeah, we can… I can do that.”

“You’re gonna have to lean on me but I’m gonna need you to use your good leg, okay?” Lance asked, trying to speak slowly despite the rushing in his veins. He didn’t like Keith like this, disoriented. _Injured_. Keith didn’t deserve to look so transparent from bloodloss, so lost.

“Okay,” Keith answered, bracing his hands on the floor as if he was worried he’d tip. His eyes caught Lance’s, a sudden clarity within them, and he leaned forward suddenly, precariously, “But we have to - we have to watch out for them!”

Lance braced his hands on Keith’s shoulders as the other began tilting a bit to the side, pushing him gently back against the wall. “For _them_?”

“They’re… they’re still out there,” Keith waved a hand vaguely. “They’re still there!”

“Okay, well what are they? What do they look like?” Lance asked, sparing a glance to either side. He saw nothing, darkness hovering deep and and suddenly even more menacing than before past the edges of his suit’s lights. “Work with me here buddy, what do I gotta look out for?”

“They’re blue, blue-ish,” Keith said slowly, took a deep breath and closed his eyes in thought. “Bulgy looking, big… big on top and swirly at the bottom.”

“That’s… vague.”

“And you can’t see them.”

“You can’t see them?” Lance asked, one eyebrow lifting skeptically. He was starting to worry the blood loss was getting to Keith’s head - he needed to get him out of there, and fast.

“Not… no, you can’t,” Keith’s eyes shot open as he gave a frustrated grunt, “You can’t look at them and see them, they’re like... They’re there. At the edges. You have to just-not look at them. Just to the side.”

He was breathing heavily, getting worked up as he glanced around them.

“Look, look up there,” Keith said, waving a hand up towards the walkway above, “Above my le-”

Lance looked up but all he saw was what was there before - a dark walkway with the morbid glint of white armor that was Keith’s leg.

“It’s not there…” Keith’s voice was a whisper, a chill edge of fear staining the edges, and Lance looked back at him, wide eyed. He’d gone even paler, if that was possible, his hair and eyes inky black against the translucence of his skin, and this close Lance could see the way his lips were trembling, the way his eyes had widened so much the edges of his eyelids were straining. “It’s not there Lance!”

“What’s - Keith calm down, what’s not there?” Lance was glad he still had his hands on Keith’s shoulders - at his sudden outburst he’d tried to jerk himself forward, as if he wanted to get up, and now his hands were gripping at Lance’s shoulders, eyes wild as he scanned their surroundings.

“It - the thing, the creature - it’s not up there anymore!”

“Keith, buddy, please, calm down,” Lance tried to use his best soothing tone but it was shaky, fractured, as Keith’s emphatic reaction began tilting the unease in him towards the fearful end. He was starting to feel a bit paranoid, as Keith’s eyes dodged around them, his breath coming fast, a prickling running down his spine as a chill hit him, running down the back of his neck. He shuddered, focus wavering - but then suddenly Keith was shouting something - _Lance, no!_ \- and they were toppling to the side, Keith crying out in pain.

Clarity hit Lance like a freight train, sudden and full awareness coming back in the split second during their fall, and even on his back he twisted around to take stock of their surroundings. Keith was shaking next to him and Lance was shoving himself off the ground and it was only when his eyes shifted to the right, glancing out into the darkness, that he noticed a glimmer of blue at the edge of his vision, right where he’d been crouched just moments before.

_You have to just-not look at them…_

He swore under his breath, bayard flashing into his hand as he reflexively aimed, pulse pounding frenzied in his head as he fired off a shot without thinking.

The bolt blazed through the empty space where the blue glow had lingered, lighting up the darkness until it hit the far wall in a shower of sparks. Keith groaned next to him, struggling to lift himself onto his elbows, and Lance stared wide eyed ahead of him, not seeing the blue, not sure if his shot had had any effect at all.

“Lance…” Keith called out, voice strained, and though his hands shook and that paranoid, skin crawling feeling hadn’t left him, Lance let his rifle disappear and turned his attention back to his injured friend. There was something there with them, for certain, something practically invisible, something that could creep up on them without a sound and without their notice, something that could be creeping up on him again _right now_ -

“Okay buddy,” Lance said, a little too quickly, voice strained and high-pitched, “Okay, we’re gonna go. We’re gonna go, like, _yesterday_ , we are going to get right up and get out of here…”

Keith made no response to his rambling, but he gripped Lance’s arm when he was offered it, bit his lip as Lance rose and tugged him up after him. When Lance’s eyes were on Keith, he could just make out the faintest edge of blueish glow on the periphery, but he tried his hardest to ignore the ominous feeling that accompanied that glimpse, tried to focus on getting Keith’s arm across his shoulders and getting him on something like stable footing instead.

“We’re going to start walking now, okay?” Lance said, willing his voice to remain steady. Keith was oddly non-vocal through the whole ordeal, biting his lip more often than not, maybe letting out a whimper when the pain came on too strong. And sure, he was a quiet guy, but he responded most of the time, acknowledged what was said to him - but right then it seemed all his energy was going into keeping his grip on Lance’s shoulder, keeping whatever balance he could find on his one good leg. Lance took a steadying breath, eyes flicking around them to try and gauge where the creature was hiding. The glow seemed a little closer than it had been before - closer, but not by much. Lance couldn’t tell how fast they could move, one of them had ripped off Keith’s leg after all, they had to be capable of some sort of burst of speed, but the one stalking them seemed to be taking its sweet time.

That was almost worse, the uncertainty weighing heavily on his fraying nerves. Was it waiting for an opportune moment? Was this one actually slow or was it just biding its time? Would it jump on the attack as soon as they moved, or would it follow behind them, in their blind spot where they wouldn’t be able to see it, waiting for the nerves and the paranoia to force them into making a mistake?

Lance wished he knew what to expect - not knowing was almost worse.

“We’re going now,” He whispered, maybe more to himself than to Keith. With some minute finger movements he pulled up an outline map of their surroundings. There was a doorway across the way from them, much farther than Lance would have liked it to be, but beyond that was a hallway, and beyond that the cargo bay. They should be able to get the door open there, and he knew there was room outside for either Blue or Red to maneuver in close enough to pick them up. Honestly, he was a bit surprised Red wasn’t blowing the place up already in response to Keith’s injury - but he didn’t have time to think of that right then. He needed to get them out of there. Taking a final breath, the threat of that odd blue glow hovering at the edge of his vision, he whispered again, “Gonna take our first step now, come on, one by one…”

They took their first step together, wobbly but despite the way Keith’s breath hitched as they moved it went well. They followed that with another, then another, Lance’s arm curled tightly around Keith’s waist, his other hand clutching his wrist because despite Keith’s effort his grip on the shoulder of Lance’s armor was weak. It wasn’t his fault - the armor was smooth, his strength was gone, and though not being able to handle his bayard had Lance feeling horribly helpless he could fight that feeling down because helping Keith get out of there was far more important.

Besides, the creature was still around, even after he’d aimed an energy bolt directly at it. He doubted his rifle would help them much - getting out as fast as they could was the best they could do at that point.

“You gotta… you gotta watch out for them…” Keith mumbled, his arm tightening a bit around Lance’s shoulder as they took a hard step forward.

“Yeah, I got that,” Lance responded, eyes in constant motion. He hadn’t seen anything suspicious since they’d started moving, he suspected that if the creature _was_ following them it was behind them now, trailing their slow progress. That tingling sensation along his spine wasn’t letting up, worsened by the sweat that was dripping down his neck. He couldn’t be sure when the last time he felt so wired and fearful had been - he didn’t like these sorts of unknowns. He liked being able to see what he was fighting, to figure out what was laid out before him.

He couldn’t figure out invisible enemies. He couldn’t find a way to pass them, to plan around them, couldn’t shoot them down or disable them. He didn’t have Keith’s weird instinctual awareness of his surroundings - and even if he did _even if he did what good would it do_ ? Keith was attacked anyways - viciously and without restraint. If these things could take Keith down _what could they do to him_ ? Lance wasn’t as good a fighter, he didn’t have those reflexes, he didn’t have that supernatural awareness. All he had was a solid head on his shoulders, most of the time, a weird knack for strategy, and a rifle and shooting skills that were _absolutely useless right then -_

The map on Lance’s visor flashed, the doorway lighting up before his eyes. They were almost there - he realized he’d been internally freaking out almost the entire way across the room and _he still didn’t know where that damn creature was_.

Deep breath in, deep breath out. He wasn’t going to lose it again, no, what if he walked right into one of those damn things? He paused a moment, shooting a glance around them to try to pick up on anything. Darkness surrounded them, the glow nowhere to be found, but he wasn’t in any position to try and look behind them, not with Keith clinging to him like he was, footing horribly unsteady and breathing ragged.

“Keith? You holding in there?” Lance asked softly, turning his head to speak towards him. Keith shifted in his hold, leaning on Lance even more.

“ ‘m all right,” He muttered, sounding the exact opposite. His voice was ragged, gravelly liked he’d been swallowing rocks, and breathlessly wheezing, like he couldn’t catch hold of his breath. He wouldn’t admit to weakness, though, Lance knew that all too well. He’d keep going until he just couldn’t anymore, and then probably try to tell Lance to keep going without him while he tried to fight invisible creatures off on one leg to buy him time, because Keith was always stupid like that.

“Just a little bit further, okay? You think you can do that for me?” Lance asked. The prickling was growing, goosebumps ghosting across his skin, and an urgency was pulsing his nerves, some deep dark instinctual sort of urgency woken from unknown danger in unknown places.

“For you…” Keith took a shuddering breath, standing up a little straighter suddenly, voice a little stronger like he’d found some reserve of strength still hiding away inside. “For you, yeah…”

Lance couldn’t deny the way he said it, the way his voice had grown stronger, had toned soft, woke something warm inside him. Keith was soft so rarely, even in the depths of darkness in an abandoned base with ethereal near-invisible creatures stalking them, Lance couldn’t help but take a half-second to treasure it.

Now, he just needed to get Keith out of there so he had more chances to be soft like that in the future.

“Let’s go.”

The door ahead of them was ajar, as if whatever mechanism controlled it had gotten stuck halfway. Lance considered detouring them to the door panel to try to use it to widen the opening - there had to be some sort of emergency power in the place, considering the emergency lights on the walkway - but decided against it. For one, it was an unnecessary amount of added walking for Keith. For two, the width of the gap looked to be just enough for them to squeeze through, if they went through sideways, Lance first pulling Keith through behind him.

Still going to be painful for Keith, no doubt, but probably better than taking more steps than necessary.

It was when they were halfway through the doorway, and Lance was turned back to focus on Keith, that he noticed the blue glow again. Just on his peripheral vision, and just behind Keith - the shock of it stilling him for long enough that he could vaguely make out that bulging top, the oddly swirling, tentacle like lower half, the way it reminded him of something like a man o’ war, drifting silent and deadly and waking some primal fear in his hindbrain. He stiffened, tugging Keith a little too hard probably, as he let out a curse.

“Keith! Sorry, we gotta move-”

But Keith was clinging to his shoulder, fingers scrabbling against the smooth armor, his eyes gone wide as he spluttered out himself,

“Lance - they’re there, they’re… there’s _more_!”

“More?” Lance spun around, nearly losing both of their balances as his eyes roamed the dimly lit hallway before them.

He didn’t have to focus - or _not-_ focus - hard. He didn’t have to even try _at all_ \- everywhere he looked, blue tinted the edge of his vision, bulbous shapes crowded up until they faded out of sight, swirling masses swayed lethargically.

Lance swore his heart stopped - ice doused his veins, goosebumps pimpled his skin, a tremor raced from the top of his head to his toes - as he realized suddenly that they were absolutely and utterly surrounded.

He glanced back the way they came - averting his eyes as best he could, fighting the instinct to face the threat head on - but the creature still hovered there, just outside the gap, tendrils of fluorescent blue moving lazily through the air.

“We can’t go back,” He choked out, voice almost unrecognizable to himself. Keith shuddered in his hold. “We have… we have to keep going. That thing is right back there, Keith, if we go back we’ll walk right into it!”

“There… there’s so many of them…” Keith breathed, still facing the hallway.

“Thank you Captain Obvious,” Lance muttered more out of habit than any actual irritation. He pulled Keith closer to himself, opening up a communications line in an effort to call in backup. He’d tried earlier, when he’d been heading to Keith, but the connection was spotty, incoherent and filled with white noise or cutting out completely. It turned out it wasn’t much better right then either, static filling his ears as the comms icon flashed red across the helmet screen.

“We can do this,” He said, flicking a finger and closing the comms line again, trying to ignore just how much blue was surrounding them. He took a deep breath, tried to steady his voice. “We just gotta move slow, but I’m gonna need your help, okay? Need you to keep an eye on these things as well, let me know if you see one getting too close.”

“Yeah,” Keith breathed, and even though Lance couldn’t see his face he could hear the wince in his voice as he shifted on his leg. “I got you.”

“All right, let’s get out of here.”

The first step was the worst - dread was chilling Lance’s determination, threatening to send the full weight of fear and dismay careening through his mind as the nearest blue glows came even nearer, as their edges faded into nothingness once they reached his line of sight. Keith had said not to touch them - was that what he did? Was that why he was attacked? - and Lance was horribly and acutely aware of just how little room they had to maneuver between the hovering apparitions filling the hallway. Weird, otherworldly monster jellyfish, before them and around them and behind them, and only a thin line to walk that would keep them from getting torn apart. How much would it take to activate their rampage tendencies? Just a brush? A full on touch? What if each of the damn things had a different trigger, what if they just _walked_ by one and it went ballistic? What if it didn’t grab a leg this time, what if it grabbed a _head_?

Lance whimpered a little at the thought, grip tightening around Keith’s waist reflexively. They’d taken one step and he was already imagining the horror movie scene that would happen, invisible tentacles wrapping around his neck and popping his head off like a champagne cork, blood spurting out comically-

“Lance?”

“Yeah?” They’d made another step forward, edging into what seemed to be an empty space between two slightly shuddering creatures.

“You okay?”

Lance almost, _almost_ , laughed at that. Keith, asking _him_ if he was okay? As if he wasn’t phasing in and out of focus from bloodloss, limping along on one leg.

“Peachy keen, jelly bean,” He said instead, angling himself to the side in the hopes that it would help getting them through that narrow band of clear air that he could only just _barely_ see if he unfocused his eyes and squinted a bit up just shy of the ceiling.

Keith, on the other hand, did laugh - a short, wheezy exhale of a chuckle, but it was there, Lance could feel it as a real thing where Keith’s side moved against his own.

“My dad…” Keith said slowly, “My dad used to say that.”

“Wow, way to make me feel old,” Lance quipped, tugging Keith through the gap. Keith tucked his loose arm in as tight as he could, Lance could see his eyes shooting around, gauging the proximity of the creatures they were passing.

 

They didn’t talk much more after that, their way becoming more crowded, their progress slowing, sometimes outright stopping, while they plotted their next steps, or paused to let Keith catch his breath and rest. The creatures milled about, almost in place, static for the moment. The relative stillness was as unnerving as ever, however. Lance kept waiting for _the moment_ \- kept expecting it at every step.

“You holding in there?” He said softly, head tilted closer to Keith’s. They’d stopped again, this time with their backs against a wall, after having skirted around a group of creatures taking up the center of the room.

Keith responded with a nod, chest heaving with each breath. Lance was surprised he hadn’t passed out yet, that he was still plugging along with grim determination. Maybe he shouldn’t have been; it was Keith, after all. There was only one thing that was ever going to stop him.

“Not far now, look, we’re almost at the end of the hallway,” Lance pointed his light ahead of them, illuminating a doorway that stood, miraculously, only a couple yards away. “We just gotta get through that door, then out through the cargo bay to the doors and we’ll be home free!”

“Sounds good,” Keith wheezed, tilting his head back against the wall. Lance tracked a bead of sweat that slid down from his temple, along his cheek to his chin. He didn’t miss the way Keith was shaking again, tiny uncontrollable tremors vibrating through him. They seemed to come and go, a bad sign in and of itself. Lance wondered if Keith was Galra enough to have inherited their constitution, if that was what was keeping him from collapsing in shock for so long after such a grievous injury, when he shouldn’t have been down and and out probably a long time ago.

No time to think on that now; they were still deep in the monster’s den. Lance took a moment to take a look around, trying to gauge the strength of the glow surrounding them, the amount of blue he could see. Blue, blue, blue, painting the edges of his vision and sending that tremor of primal fear racing down his spine. How could he ever look at the color the same way again?

“Let’s go.”

They made it to the doorway with surprising ease. There was darkness beyond that but suddenly it didn’t seem so heavy, because as they took their first steps through a strong and unmistakable presence exploded in Lance’s head, impatience and irritation sparking for a second before giving way to an overpowering _concern_ that flooded his senses.

 _Blue_ , he thought, and Keith stumbled beside him, breath catching at almost the same time Lance broke out into a wide grin. The echos of a roar reached them, distant but strong. A promise to them, a warning to their enemies.

“Red.” There was a fondness in Keith’s tired voice, a hint of strength that hadn’t been there before. “Red’s coming.”

“So is Blue,” Lance allowed himself to laugh, relief chasing back some of that anxious fear that had been coursing through him for who knows how long now. Their lions were coming to get them, they were going to bust in and pick them up and get them home, carry them far, far away from freaky nearly invisible jellyfish monsters. “Come on, let’s go meet them!”

They took an energetic step, Keith moving with more determination than before, then another, and another. No blue glinted at the edges of their vision, no ghostly glows crowded them. The cargo bay stood empty and dimly lit around them, a couple of dusty old freighters sitting on one side, barely visible in the emergency lights. Before them, across the metal expanse of floor, the cargo bay door stood illuminated by a ring of lights. It was closed, but it didn’t matter - there was little that could stand up to the force of their lions, as soon as Blue and Red got down to their level that door was a goner. As soon as-

Another roar sounded, closer now, shaking the walls and floor, but it barely registered in Lance’s awareness - because suddenly, so suddenly he could barely tell when it happened, all hell had broken loose.

The chill came like the first breath of a blizzard gust, sharp and nearly physical enough to cause him to stumble. Keith choked on a gasp of pain as both of their footings faltered, while at the edges of his vision Lance could just barely see the blue seeping. There was a sound reaching him all of a sudden, quiet and murmuring, whispering all around them. Everywhere he looked, the creatures were appearing, the glow fading into view to flank them on either side.

“They’re moving,” Keith coughed, leaning hard against Lance as he struggled to look around. He was right - as Lance let his eyes wander, he could see the way the glowing tendrils swirled through the air. They were slow, methodical almost, but they moved with a purpose, a side-to-side sweeping motion at various levels, as if they were trawling for something.

 _For us_ , Lance realized, terror rising from the pit of his stomach to his throat, choking him with the intensity of it. They were _hunting_ them.

“We have to go,” Lance pulled at Keith, dragging him along as he hurried past the rapidly nearing creatures. The going was rough, too rough considering how much Keith was whimpering, hissing in pain, but Lance wouldn’t let them slow down. The creatures were getting closer and was… was it his imagination, or were they becoming more visible? Were the tentacles extending into his actual field of vision, beyond just the periphery, or was he just seeing things? He couldn’t tell anymore.

Another roar, almost deafening despite coming from behind the cargo bay door, and Lance would’ve sobbed with relief if he had the moment, knowing that their lions were there for them. He didn't have the time for it; at the roar the creatures began moving even more energetically, their ethereal shapes taking on an odd glow that left behind the quiet blue from before in favor of something even brighter, even _stranger_. It was a color Lance couldn't find a name for, a kaleidoscope shivering between blues and turquoises and spots of gold and even new colors that he could barely understand, that his mind was skipping and sputtering over itself trying to describe - and what was worse was that his suspicions were correct. The colors were seeping into his full vision now, the tendrils the creatures swung through air visible even when he focused on them.

Keith let out a strangled sound, jerking so hard towards Lance they nearly lost their footing again. A creature near him had swung wide, the bulbous bell at the top shifting closer at the movement, a myriad of colors within it flashing as it wobbled. Like a cuttlefish stalking it's prey, it flashed and strobed in a mesmerizing array of pattern and color, almost ridiculous and downright terrifying to see directed at them.

“It touched me,” Keith exclaimed, and in a flash his sword was in his hand, wavering and shaking as he held it out defensively between himself and the creature.

“No, _No!_ We're not fighting them Keith we don't even know if we _can_ fight them okay we just gotta keep moving,” Lance couldn't keep the slightly hysterical edge out of his voice. It felt like he had several armies of ants crawling through his skin, twitching and tickling it as his skin raised in goosebumps he didn't know if he'd ever lose. The air around them was chilled, horribly cold even though their suits were supposed to be insulated against temperature changes - but maybe it wasn't the temperature that was changing, Maybe it was something different, something on a different level. Something that came from the same place as the technicolored horror jellyfish that were bursting into terrifying colorful existence all around them. “We're moving, we are getting to those damned doors and we're getting out of here and not even looking back you hear me?”

Lance didn't wait for a response, tugging Keith bodily across the floor as a burst of adrenaline buzzed through his veins, though Keith did mutter a weak “yeah” a moment later, blade still gripped in his hand tightly, the tip dragging along the floor with a spine-tingling sound. Lance wanted to snap at him to pick it up, put it away, make there be one less thing to elicit shudders down his spine but he couldn't waste his breath, not when more shapes were forming in the air before them, not when he knew it wouldn't do any good anyways.

A blow struck the cargo bay doors, a growl reverberating not only through the entire bay but through his head as well. A second one followed, a blast that shook the doors again and rimmed the edges of the doors in a brilliant glow for a moment.

“We're making it, you hear me?” Lance said, repeating himself over and over, needing something to drown out the awful existence of the monsters, to drown out the terror that was threatening to overcome him at the thought that they were becoming surrounded - that he had no way of fighting back when his hands were full dragging Keith along - that Keith was so injured and growing weaker by the second, whatever small burst of energy he'd been getting obviously taxing him even further, to the point where he could barely grip Lance's shoulder, barely hold his sword.

The doors were closer now, but the air was all a-shimmer, filled with searching tendrils, and no matter how hard Lance tried he couldn't find an empty space to move. Breath heaving, panic beginning to crowd in from the edges of his mind he nearly spun in place, vision overwhelmed by blues and greens and unnamed colors that were sending his brain into a strange place, where tentacles multiplied, where existence was balanced on the edge of a kaleidoscopic wheel, where color had a voice and sounds had a touch - tentacles trailed their steps as he tried to pull Keith away, the cargo bay doors shuddered under another onslaught but this time he could only see the glow around the edges through the gelatinous, transparent multi-hued bodies of the creatures surrounding them. It purpled, it greened, it blued as the surfaces of their bloated bells shimmered and shifted. Another roar sounded but it felt distant, everything felt distant, only the pounding in his ears and the weight of Keith in his arms feeling real anymore.

“They’re-they’re touching us!” Keith rasped from beside him, and Lance knew that. He could feel it, the tendrils ghosting through them, leaving his skin feeling like he’d just rolled in slime, oil slick under his underarmor wherever they touched him, moved _through_ him, because despite being visible now they were still incorporeal in some sense, still more image than substance.

“W-we have to keep moving,” Lance stuttered, the cold the creatures seemed to emanate shooting pain through his joints, setting his teeth clattering, the glows making his eyes skitter around as he searched for the clearest route. There was none, the only choice they had was to dive head-on into the mass of crowding creatures, face that chill and that sickening jelly-like feeling and get out of there. “Maybe, maybe if w-we keep m-m-m-oving they won’t be able to grab us!”  
It was a desperate plan, it could’ve been hopeless for all he knew but what else could they do? Keith seemed to agree, pushing off with his good leg as best he could and hoisting the sword so it wouldn’t drag on the floor. The roars from outside were becoming almost continuous - to his surprise Lance noticed a difference in the attacks on the door, the dim glow of what he’d assumed was Red’s flamethrower giving way to a sheen of ice covering the inside of the shuddering door. The combination of the lion’s attacks was having effect, even as he watched cracks began appearing in the heavy metal at the center line, branching out like spider webs with each successive concussive blow.

Lance could only just barely feel the relief that came with the knowledge of how close the lions were to getting them, however - it was buried under layers of terror, layers of worry, layers of cold that coated him with every desperate step through the mass of creatures that crowded and curled around them, tentacles slipping around them, through them, leaving behind a frost that hit pain deep within his breastbone. Keith was shuddering against him, breath running harsher than Lance’s, incoherent mumblings accompanying it as he struggled to help as well as he could. Lance didn’t know how Keith could still move - how he could still react at all to the situation around them. Maybe it was the same desperation that was fueling him, the same hysterical need to get out, out, _out._

Tendrils whirled around them, before them the door was cracking apart, chunks were getting torn back by massive metal claws - and suddenly a creature appeared before them, massive, larger than the others, brighter in a way that bordered on radically impossible, colors flashing in sequences Lance’s eyes couldn’t keep up, his brain sputtering in a fitful attempt to process the overload of sensory information.

He jerked back, shaken off his balance, but Keith was already reacting, grip tightening on Lance’s shoulder as his other arm swung his sword out in a shaky but purposeful arc. The blade gleamed when it met the edge of the creature’s bulbous body, a myriad of lights released as it sliced through shockingly easily. The creature’s tentacles spiralled in reaction, whipped round uncontrollably, and Lance had a half-second where dread shocked through him, where something like fearful anticipation cleaved right through him - then the creature fell apart, and with the release of all those colors came a sound he could never have imagined.

Screeching - soul rending screeching, like the death of a star and the birth of a nebula, like several planes of existence rubbing against each other, screeching that clawed and dug its way through Lance’s head and into the marrow of his bones and set his whole _existence_ to otherworldly ice. It was not even a chill, at that point, it was an _absence_ , and within it the promise of a thousand years of torturous death awaiting him.

Bright light exploded into his vision - he was barely aware of his position, prone on the floor, Keith twisting in pain beside him, the creatures floating above, tentacles outstretched and searching. Something was calling him, a voice he recognized, he knew, but it was so distant and he was so cold and he had the strange feeling that the only way to save himself from the dreadful promises the vision had shown him was to let himself fall into the inky blackness edging his sight, to collapse back from the glowing colors above him.

The floor shook. An echo reached him, a roar that he felt in his chest, in his heart, a voice that rose in his head. His eyes turned from the swirling kaleidoscope above him towards the cargo bay doors. They were close, closer than he’d expected them to be, and though his vision blurred with the glow of mixing colors he could see that they were damaged, that a hole had been rent through the middle and through it there was a glint of familiar silver and blue. His eyes met Blue’s, the shine of them seeming stronger than anything around him, and her voice rose in his head, urging him to get up, to _move_ , to come back to her so that they could get away!

He had to listen. His legs shifted, then his arms, feeling returned even with the heavy chill that encompassed him. He reached a hand out to Keith, gripped his arm as he pushed himself off the floor. The creatures above them began to shift colors more rapidly, their tentacles whipping through the air as they descended towards them. Blue called out again, the sound of metal being torn apart filled the air, but Lance was frozen, surrounded, inches away from the tentacles that were whipping ever closer - until there was fire.

Bright, burning hot, the glow of it stinging Lance’s eyes until they watered. The creatures above them shuddered in response to the flames, their forms suddenly shifting opaque, and for a moment that dread chill lifted. Lance could feel his body again, could feel the pounding of his pulse and the racing of his thoughts. As he struggled to stand he found Keith pushing himself up as well, eyes wide as he glanced towards the doors. Lance leaned low over him, wasted no time in gripping him under his arms and hauling him up on his leg. If it hurt, Keith didn’t show it, but maybe he was just that far gone by that point, his face horribly pale and his eyes dark and haunted. Lance didn’t care right then, he couldn’t care because the creatures were beginning to get their color back, beginning to hover in closer to them again and the door was _right there_ in front of them.

He dragged Keith along, the lions roaring their encouragement, the sound shuddering their surroundings again. The intensity of their emotions fueled Lance’s desperate attempt to escape. They were so close - so close - _so close_. Every step felt like agony, like wading through chest deep water, ice cold and only growing colder - his panicked mind could only assume the creatures were regrouping for another assault.

Not fast enough, Lance thought, the gaping hole of the door only a few feet ahead of them. They were making it, they were getting out of there. Blue and Red were going to scoop them up and haul them away as fast as they could fly, back to the castle and back to safety and far away from the terrible creatures that hid in the dark. They were going to make it, they were so close, only two more steps-

Only two more -

Lance reached out a hand, feeling the cold at his back and seeing Blue’s nose press in through the wrecked door -

Only one more -

Blue’s mouth opened, the ramp slid down, and he was taking that step, hauling Keith with all his might, throwing himself forward when suddenly, unexpectedly, something grabbed hold of his armor

-and _tugged_.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to hear from you what you thought! Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Like horror in your Voltron? Want more of it? Keep an eye out on my [writing tumblr](https://hollowrites.tumblr.com) for updates on my pet project, the Voltron Horror Collection!


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